Weekend Reading | Vol. 12

Life has been full of ups and downs lately. Work has been fun, but also stressful, and I’ve been having fun in Santa Barbara but missing Lawrence terribly.

On top of that, the internet was really bumming me out for a while. A lot of that had to do with the reaction to this post I wrote for Book Riot in response to some lame ass librarians on twitter who are no on board with the diverse books movement. In what I thought was not a controversial move at all, I wrote “Whether you read 100 books a year or 10 books a year, a dedicated percentage of those (25% is a good place to start) should be written by diverse voices and consist of books outside your comfort zone.”

Which is what I believe really all people, but especially librarians, should be doing. And I was floored by the negative, and frankly racist, responses to it, not only from readers, but also librarians. I got trolled in a librarian Facebook group and on twitter pretty hard. And why I stand by what I wrote, the backlash left a bad taste in my mouth.

All of this is why I haven’t been blogging as much lately. But I feel like I’m evening out, and I’m getting back in the swing of things.

Here’s what I have been reading online lately.

High fives and hugs to Tim Gunn for this fantastic piece in the Washington Post on the illogical and insulting way the fashion industry treats women who are over a size 16.

I loved all the cemetery photos on The Dainty Squid because I am kind of morbid like that. I’m excited to check out the Santa Barbara Cemetery I drove by recently on a trip to a branch library.

I’m seriously coveting this cacti dress. Apparently I need more plant dresses in my life, because this one is also in a shopping cart just waiting to be purchased.

On my last trip to Sephora to restock some boring essentials, I got a sample of this Marc Jacobs lipstick, and it’s so long lasting and feels great, and now I’m coveting it in this bright cherry red. But I don’t live in a world where I spend $40 on lipstick.

Ugh. The internet can be an ugly place, or rather a place for ugly people to spread hate. That makes me sad on a weekly basis. I’m sorry you are dealing with it, but I think it’s good of you to put your opinion out there and encourage diversity in books, libraries, and in reading. Go you. Screw them. Hmmm…. I haven’t read a ton of great articles recently. I tweeted one a fellow blogger wrote about not letting the world harden you. Which was sweet and relates (for me) directly to rude internet folk. LOL I also saw a great video on a photography project where a man is photographing black men. It’s really an amazing project to diminish stereotypes and create more understanding. XO – Alexandra

I can’t believe you got negativity from that statement! How is being intentional about having a more diverse reading life a bad thing? Ever? That’s definitely something I don’t really think about as much as I feel like I should–my reading is definitely more driven by what sounds good at the time, or what comes through from my library holds! But I would like to be more conscious about it, and I can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t see the benefit there… Hmm. Well I’m off to go check out your article now because I think it sounds fantastic.